It’s a real pleasure today to be helping launch the blog tour for Maggie Christensen’s Escape to Bellbird Bay, and to share my review: published today (11th May), this is the sixth book in her latest series, set in a small community on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, available both as an e-book (free via Kindle Unlimited) and in paperback via Amazon in the UK and US. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to both Rachel and Maggie for my advance reading e-copy.
You’ll know by now how much I’m enjoying this lovely series, and the now familiar and well-drawn location – together with the many individuals who’ve begun to feel like friends – continues to delight me. The last book, Finding Refuge in Bellbird Bay – Bev and Iain’s story – was my favourite so far, and you’ll find my review here. I’ve only missed one book in this series – and that really didn’t matter, as every book can be enjoyed as a standalone – and you’ll find all my other reviews (and the many of Maggie’s other books too, including her lovely Granite Springs series) if you pop her name into my search box. Second chance romance at its very best, mature characters I always find it so easy to identify with, the perfect emotional touch in every book, and always a thoroughly engaging story – and the was a book I was looking forward to every bit as much as I have all the others…
When successful university lecturer Alison Wells’ life unexpectedly falls apart, she follows in her brother’s footsteps and escapes to the coastal town of Bellbird Bay on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Neil Simpson loves teaching and his position as principal at a prestigious boys’ school in Brisbane. But when scandal rocks the school, and he learns his father’s health is failing, he has no choice but to return to his hometown of Bellbird Bay.
Determined not to be a burden to her brother and his new partner, Ali is considering her options when her world and Neil’s collide. Having avoided commitment all her life, Ali is unprepared for the force of her attraction to the man who is trying to come to terms with the upheaval in his own life.
As fate conspires to keep them apart, can this small town work its magic on these two lost souls?
Another two new arrivals are hoping Bellbird Bay will work its healing magic, both escaping from real world problems at crossroads in their lives. Perth-based Alison has visited before, when she reconnected with brother Adam – forced to take leave from her university post in Women’s Studies when a difficult situation arises, she needs some breathing space and some time to consider her future. Neil’s situation is similar – caught up in a problem at his Brisbane school but brought up in the Bay, he arrives with daughter Bronte to find that his father Harry, who runs the bookshop, is grappling with some health issues that are more serious than they initially appear.
Neither of them is looking for love – Alison in particular is fiercely independent, with an aversion to relationships because of her complicated past, and the distance between them when they return to their former lives would just make everything too difficult. But they grow closer – a relationship I really believed in – and begin to see that the futures they both envisage could turn into something neither of them had expected.
One of the author’s strengths – one of many, I should add – is in the way she creates such sympathetic characters, so easy to identify with. I really liked Alison – she had a lot of traits I think I rather share, and I was with her every step of the way as she made her choices and decided what course would make her happy. And Neil’s situation – the fragile and ageing parent, and how to handle the situation – is a dilemma so very familiar to so many of us in later life, and my heart went out to him. I must say too that I thought the book gave a particular insight into his father’s particular illness, not focused on often enough in fiction – sensitively handled, and emotional in all the right ways. I also very much liked the focus on the women’s centre where Alison begins helping out – perhaps unexpected in an idyllic setting like Bellbird Bay, but a facility it’d be good to see more often in larger communities too.
As always, the characters’ story is set against the backdrop of the community many of us have come to know so well – that lovely enveloping warmth and welcome to strangers, with cameo appearances from a range of familiar individuals whose lives have gently moved on from the earlier books. The author’s emotional touch is as perfect as ever as both Alison and Neil make decisions about the future, the setting beautifully described (and I really enjoyed spending some time among the shelves at Bay Books…), and all with a particularly uplifting and satisfying conclusion. Have I ever mentioned how much I love this series? This was one of my favourites so far… a strong recommendation from me.
About the author
After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing contemporary women’s fiction portraying mature women facing life-changing situations, and historical fiction set in her native Scotland. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Maggie has been called the queen of mature age fiction and her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea – warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.
From the small town in Scotland where she grew up, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!
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Thanks so much, Anne!